Mittler Family Donates Corey Lake Preserve

Corey Lake Preserve is a generous donation of a very scenic property on the north bay of CoreyLake and was donated to SWMLC in December by the Mittler Family Foundation.

CoreyLake is a mostly developed recreation lake west of ThreeRivers, with two large camps and many resorts along its shores. The donated property contains scenic upland forests that cloak a high ridge overlooking the north bay. It also contains a six-acre chunk of a larger complex of scrub-shrub and emergent wetland that filters out sediments, nutrients, and pollutants from surrounding agricultural areas and thus helps protect the purity of surface water draining into CoreyLake.

By keeping this property natural, SWMLC will carry out the donors' wishes of preserving a very scenic resource and protecting the first part of a larger wetland complex that has multiple benefits to wildlife and the lake.

[Photo by Peter D. Ter Louw]

Winter Tike Hikes Continue through March

Join us for family hikes on our nature preserves! SWMLC board member Jen Lau and friends have been leading these every Sunday since December.

Tike hikes last about 1 hour at typical toddler pace: lots of stops, wandering in the wrong direction, pausing to eat snow, etc.

All hikes are on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. and depend on weather conditions for that day. (Please check our Facebook page for updates the morning of the hike.)

Paint a Less Rosy Picture at Spirit Springs March 14

The dainty spring ephemerals get started early at Spirit Springs Sanctuary in Marcellus, but they also face some challenges.

Just like the spring wildflowers, invasive multiflora rose leafs out early in the season, too, directly challenging the strategy of these native plants.

Let's lay into these sprawling roses and give our Michigan native wildflowers a leg up on the competition.

Saturday, March 14, 1-4 p.m.

Email Mitch at lettow@swmlc.org to let him know you're coming.

Storybook Hike at Pilgrim Haven Natural Area March 29

SWMLC board member Jen Lau will lead a storybook hike for kids at Pilgrim Haven Natural Area, South Haven, on Sunday, March 29.

The featured book will be The Day the Great Lakes Drained Away by Charles Ferguson Barker. We hope to have free copies available to the first 12 families who register and attend.

The guided hike will last from 1-2 p.m., and each page of the book will be laminated and posted around the preserve. After 2 p.m., all others are welcome. The preserve will be open until 5 p.m. and the pages will remain up until then.

We hope to repeat this guided storybook hike in the summer, so if you can't be one of the first 12 families to register for the guided hike this time, check back here later.